Higgs in brief: 1) They found a particle at the LHC that sure looks like the Higgs. 2) The Higgs field is thought to have settled into a stable background configuration a trillionth of a second after the big bang. 3) Matter that interacts with this background becomes harder to push around and therefore has inertial mass. 4) The Higgs cleaves the electromagnetic force from the weak nuclear force by making the weak-force carriers heavy (a process known as symmetry breaking). Magic.
Janna Levin, the physicist and author tidily summarizes the Higgs boson discovery on her Facebook page. Brilliant, with a dollop of fun.
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trentgilliss posted this
public radio + digital cat (sr. editor of On Being); family man who longs for subtle glimpses of beauty in the ordinary
